If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Creeper world 3 has a washing machine level(hugely heavy moon) . Okay, sure so did world of goo, I guess it's not that original of an idea but I enjoyed it.

I am sort feeling like CW3's difficulty has stopped rising, but I'm early in the campaign, I suppose ultimately racing to finish early is a challenge I'm itself but with some levels running up to 2 hours (with my limited skill) I couldn't bare to lose by rushing.

But this much is sure, the double wall+mortar setup is sorta overpowered at this point in the campaign dig a trough between the two maximum height walls and set mortars to only fire at stuff in between, the splash damage will lower the outer pool enough to give. inside the trough a reduction, you can even quickly convert wall segments into a weapon platform (3 by 3 space) but then you are better moving the mortars up do the walls aren't over spilled.

The washing machine planet was a good example of wave dynamics as a game play mechanic, setting up a sea wall to funnel a wave into a 'kill zone' while possible wasn't really required, the ability to buy global upgrade using a magic goo you can generate is a little cheap because it gives you a way out of bad planning, but I think the generator breaks the games balance. Footnote: Creeper world shares (borrows?) a concept from the game Perimeter where land covered by the reach of a power pylon's in a circle around it provide power which is also the networking range, but the towers can only generate useful power when linked to the HQ.

Power travels down these links and across the longer reaching but non generating relays.
But this is just your logistical economy and quickly feels natural.

The issue is generators are freestanding structures which can be densely packed and after a few minutes turn an energy profit, yes they require a network but they allow geometric expansion of income without physical expansion.

Steam tells me I've just cracked the 500-hour mark playing AI War and its expansions. This is particularly impressive since a great deal of my play time on that game takes place outside Steam (under Wine on Linux or just running the DRM-free version) so that 500 hours represents perhaps 70% of my actual play-time. It's even more impressive considering there are significant numbers of things in the game I've not yet seen and options I've not yet tried, and I feel like I'm still learning even as I get noticeably better. Hell, there are still several difficulties I dare not touch and several interesting ways to make the game harder that I haven't dared attempt. It may also be worth noting that play time is spread out over 4 years, this is one of those games I come back to again and again. Every time, there are some new things to learn, some new AI tricks to avoid, some new strategic puzzles to crack. It just doesn't get old.

I'm trying to finish my CK2 Bavaria game before the next expansion hits. Ireland and Skotland have just finished partitioning England. The Umayyads are Catholic. The Ilkhanate is Catholic. Byzantium is Catholic. The Pope is a Mongol. It's one of the weirder playthroughs I've had so far.

These days there are "setup scripts" for new players, so it's relatively easy to suggest a good setup for a first campaign. Select "beginner game" from setup scripts in the game lobby. It'll set you up with a reasonable first game, against two difficulty 6 AI's of "easy" types. Don't let any of this fool you, it's still going to be a tough game, and you should be prepared to lose a few times before you really get the hang of things. The "starting out" article I linked from the wiki will give you some hints on what to look for in terms of short term goals.

I returned to Tower of Guns but I think I dislike it more now than I did the last time.

What someone said here is true about it's sound too - there's no variation in the noise and no way to place enemies/bullets with it - it's just a lot of bangs and clangs (the game plays the same when muted).

It's really a piss-poor effort - it's using Unreal Engine and the UT games are a decade old and play FAR FAR better than ToG does.

There are other mis-steps too - enemies with attack patterns are a dumb addition to a game which is randomised - it could take me decades to run into them often enough to learn their patterns!?!?

Really disappointed - both in the game and in the glowing reviews which mostly fail to mention that it's as technically shoddy as it is...

inbetween Shadowrun Dragonfall (which continues to be excellent) I've been replaying the original Thief: The Dark Project.

After all these years, I still love it. Even Down In The Bonehoard, since once you realise how incapable of actually damaging you Burricks and Zombies are, you ignore them, and it turns into a maze/little puzzle level. Even then, it's surprisingly easy to navigate. Most wrong ways become dead ends quickly. Onto mission 4: Assassins - in which Garrett is a jerk. Crime bosses pressuring you to join up and send mooks to 'persuade' you? Break into his house and take the purse from his belt to send a message.

Just finished Half Life 2: Episode 1. In all honestly, I was a bit disappointed. It was certainly a good game, but I find that Half Life is at its best when it just leaves you to your own devices in (relatively) larger levels, whereas Episode 1 seemed to funnel you from set-piece to set-piece far too quickly, never allowing you to really get a feel for the environment. Granted, I suppose that that should be expected considering the shorter length of the episodes, but it was still a bit of a let down coming off of the base game, which is one of the best constructed shooters that I've ever played.

Just finished Half Life 2: Episode 1. In all honestly, I was a bit disappointed. It was certainly a good game, but I find that Half Life is at its best when it just leaves you to your own devices in (relatively) larger levels, whereas Episode 1 seemed to funnel you from set-piece to set-piece far too quickly, never allowing you to really get a feel for the environment. Granted, I suppose that that should be expected considering the shorter length of the episodes, but it was still a bit of a let down coming off of the base game, which is one of the best constructed shooters that I've ever played.

If you have Episode 2, I'd suggest moving on to that. It's still linear, but it does open up every now and again.

Started Shadowrun Dragonfall after completing my daily challenges in Heartstone (am i the only one obssesed with this game ?) I just finished the mandatory catastrophic intro run with a dwarven Streetsam. I really like the way the story is told so far.

I returned to Tower of Guns but I think I dislike it more now than I did the last time.

What someone said here is true about it's sound too - there's no variation in the noise and no way to place enemies/bullets with it - it's just a lot of bangs and clangs (the game plays the same when muted).

It's really a piss-poor effort - it's using Unreal Engine and the UT games are a decade old and play FAR FAR better than ToG does.

There are other mis-steps too - enemies with attack patterns are a dumb addition to a game which is randomised - it could take me decades to run into them often enough to learn their patterns!?!?

Really disappointed - both in the game and in the glowing reviews which mostly fail to mention that it's as technically shoddy as it is...

I don't get it, I usually agree or sort-of agree with your opinions but in this instance it's like you're playing a completely different game. I've never been hit by an enemy I didn't know was coming because I rely on looking around rather than listening (seems like you're trying to do the latter?), though I do shit myself slightly when I hear the 'poof' of new spawns, I've not seen anything except bosses with learnable attack patterns (everything else either flies or shoots at you) and I've seen (presumably) all the bosses except for the apparently hidden one in the handful of playthroughs I've done, learning how they work takes a few seconds. That is if you don't have a gun that just decimates them almost instantly.

Sure, the sounds are shit, guns feel like crap, physics are basic and there are glitches where you fall through the floor - it's happened to me three times in the exact same place so I don't think that's a huge issue, also I've never gotten stuck on an object as you mentioned previously - but personally I don't think these detract from the game, in much the same way that Space Invaders wouldn't be improved with more graphics, sound and an extra axis of movement. It's certainly not going to win any awards for technical competence but I think it's competent enough to be fun and for the incompetent bits to not ruin the premise of the game, if you get what I mean.

Just finished Half Life 2: Episode 1. In all honestly, I was a bit disappointed.

Episode 1 was the tipping point for where my faith in reviews evaporated. People had their noses crammed so far -signal lost- that they ignored how dull and formulaic episode 1 was, not to mention recycled. It even failed to start with a train ride. Wtf?

I don't get it, I usually agree or sort-of agree with your opinions but in this instance it's like you're playing a completely different game. I've never been hit by an enemy I didn't know was coming because I rely on looking around rather than listening (seems like you're trying to do the latter?), though I do shit myself slightly when I hear the 'poof' of new spawns, I've not seen anything except bosses with learnable attack patterns (everything else either flies or shoots at you) and I've seen (presumably) all the bosses except for the apparently hidden one in the handful of playthroughs I've done, learning how they work takes a few seconds. That is if you don't have a gun that just decimates them almost instantly.

Sure, the sounds are shit, guns feel like crap, physics are basic and there are glitches where you fall through the floor - it's happened to me three times in the exact same place so I don't think that's a huge issue, also I've never gotten stuck on an object as you mentioned previously - but personally I don't think these detract from the game, in much the same way that Space Invaders wouldn't be improved with more graphics, sound and an extra axis of movement. It's certainly not going to win any awards for technical competence but I think it's competent enough to be fun and for the incompetent bits to not ruin the premise of the game, if you get what I mean.

But yeah, UT games did play better.

When people said "it's an old-skool FPS' I immediately thought "UT" - that is, for me, the definitive feel of the classic FPS with superquick movement (and the need to maintain it) and the stupid, overpowered weapons - and then it came-up as Unreal Engine and you think "OK - that's the benchmark here".

For me - a game succeeds when the controls and movement fit the levels. When jumps are just powerful enough to get around the place - when you feel 'fit' within your environment. UT did that magically and this simply doesn't - it just does not feel right - I feel like gravity is lazy and jumping is unpredictable - I get stuck on floor clutter - I get repelled from lifts - it's a mess.

I've only died 11 times so far (I almost quit at 10 when it tried a cake joke) but I can say with some confidence that EVERY one of them was a cheap death in some way or other.

I've twice died when a lift smashed me into an enemy.

I've died once falling through a platform (I didn't have "No Fall Damage" on - I've chosen it every time since)

I died once on a boss fight when I got stuck in a pillar

Most of the other deaths were to things I never even saw (and thanks to the shitter-than-shit audio - heard either)

I'm sure some people will still enjoy it but i cannot get past the fact that the controls and movement are shit in a genre which has done SO MUCH better in the past.

If they'd put 10% of the effort into those that they have into witty banter dialog we might have something - but then this is a game which installs multiple uninstallers and has no title or icon (we're not talking a game which has been tested much then!!)